Week one!

Where to begin! It has been somewhat of a crazy week only because everything that could go wrong, seems to go wrong. But we heard that is normally how it goes in the military... haha.

Monday, our sponsor Nick took us around most of the day. We tried to make an appointment at the housing office, but they sent us away and said to come back Tuesday morning. Then, we tried to get our military IDs, but they wouldn't give me one without our marriage license which was in the hotel. So they sent me away and said to come back Wednesday. At least Dan got his!  Nick give us a little tour of the area and took us to several used car lots to see if we liked anything. We found a few cars but didn't make a decision that day. For lunch, we hit up a pretty good buffet in the Officer's Club. It was "Southern Style" food. Yuuum. And I really don't remember what happened the rest of the day... haha I think that was the day we accidentally went to bed at 6 and woke up at 6! Exhausted? Yes.

Tuesday we had a housing briefing in the morning where they basically just covered a few basic things about living on base. We were told that we have to live on base because the housing on base is only 94% occupied for our category, so that didn't leave much of a choice for us. Also, we found out that we only get a loaner furniture kit for 90 days and then we have to buy all of our furniture (we were under the impression that we could use the loaners for the whole time we are here). We tried to turn in our housing application, but they wouldn't accept it because Dan's orders didn't say "accompanied tour". This all goes back to the beginning when they left me off the orders. So we were sent to another office only to get nowhere and have them send us back to housing. It was kind of ridiculous having to go back and forth and get nowhere. We finally did get a supervisor to accept our housing application!  After another lunch at the buffet (Tuesday was Italian day), I chilled at the hotel for the afternoon while Dan went into work for the first time.

Wednesday I was dropped off for the all day in-processing meeting while Dan went to take care of some finance things and such. It was a little intimidating since most everyone there was in uniform. But fortunately there was another spouse who sat in front of me that I got to know a little bit.  We had a little driver's ed course and even took our tests that morning and aced them (in case you didn't know this, they drive on the opposite side of the road here)! But unfortunately, since Dan's orders say we are here "indefinitely" (when they should say 36 months), they wouldn't give him a license. And since I still didn't have my military ID, I didn't get mine either. (Seeing how complicated things are yet??) So we have to go to some office next week to try to sort that out. They also had a little "info fair" type thing where we could walk around some tables and get some info. I talked to the Red Cross lady about possibly being placed as a volunteer in one of the schools. And another lady gave me a little info on applying for a position in the schools. I'm not sure where I will end up, but hopefully everything will be sorted out by the time Dan leaves for Texas.

Thursday was the beach party day! It was actually a work party/ promotion ceremony for Dan's boss, Claire. The beach was on an Army base about 20 minutes from Kadena I believe. The location was incredible! I still can't get over the fact that we are living on an island.... Tons of people showed up since it was for the whole Ammo squadron (which consists of about 300 people). We got to meet a few people, play some volleyball, enjoy the cookout, and soak up the sun (and it is intense!). It was a beautiful day! Afterwards, Claire drove us back to base (she has been a great help so far!!) and got our mailbox set up at the Post Office. It kinda feels like college all over again since everyone has to go to the post office to get mail and packages. :)


Friday was the day we chose our house! We actually got a call on Thursday saying we had an offer, but since we were busy, we had to wait a day to see the two options. Claire picked us up in the morning and we got the keys and checked out both places. Thursday night we actually walked to one of the neighborhoods and we both thought we were already set on living there because of the location and closeness to some of the restaurants and different things. We both wanted to like that house better! But it turned out that we both loved the other house that is about 2 miles from Dan's work, and a little farther from everything on base (aside from the Burger King). Both places were recently renovated and beautiful! We took a multiplex that is 2 stories, has 3 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, 1 half bath, many closets, a giant living/dining room, and a great kitchen! Once we go back and take some better pics, I will show you all :) After we decided on the house, we told them our decision and left! We should be contacted in a few days to set up the move in day.


For the rest of the afternoon, we kind of did the touristy thing and walked around town in and out of little shops. We've noticed that anywhere you look seems to have a restaurant and a few shops! Shouldn't have a problem finding new places to eat at :) For lunch, we tried a Japanese curry place called "Coco's" that is very popular around here. I think about 5 people this week asked if we had been there yet! It was pretty good. (The picture is my fried chicken curry) But Dan's beef curry was significantly better!

We ended the afternoon by signing the paperwork for our car!! We are buying a 2003 blue Mazda Demio. The price was pretty good and the great thing is that they let you make monthly payments for 18 months without charging interest. Maybe the dealerships in the states should learn from them... We couldn't take the car today since we didn't have our licenses yet. Hopefully that will be taken care of early next week and we can drive it to our new home by Friday!

Friday night we went on a date to celebrate our "almost 9 month anniversary". Heh so we went to the on base movie theater to see "Mirror Mirror". The tickets were only $4.50 each which was great! We plan on hitting that up a few more times while we are here. The theater was surprisingly huge (I think it holds about 800 seats). Good date night!

To end the week, we had a great day exploring on Saturday. We rode up north with Claire and Nick and met up with a few other guys at a beach. It was a little over an hour drive to get there. We passed several resorts that looked pretty nice! It was very cloudy and the water was actually pretty chilly that day.  Once we warmed up in the water for a bit, we tossed a frisbee around before venturing out around the seawall to some very remote beaches.  We spent around 2 hours exploring the coast, wishing we had our cameras because it was breathtakingly beautiful.  We would walk through shallow water for a while till we found a little cove with a beach and rest.  At first there were hundreds of tiny hermit crabs crawling around, and as we gradually got further away they got much bigger!  About the size of a small apple.  We also found some rock crabs along the way which were fun to watch as they flew across the rocks at an amazing pace.  We were extremely happy to have our beach shoes because the rocks were very sharp due to their volcanic origin.
It's hard to believe that we actually live here and can go again next weekend!

After that adventure we went to a local restaurant everyone calls "Flashy Lights" since it's actual name is hard to pronounce.  Before we were seated we had to take our shoes off and leave them on a little bookshelf type thing outside the actual dining room. Then our table was actually below the ground...in a way. Haha it is difficult to describe. In the picture, you can see that we had our feet down in a hole. So we basically had to sit on the ground to get in the table and then put our legs under the table.

It was an all you can eat buffet of meat cutlets served by the plate full that you grill yourself on a burner in the middle of your table.  It was delicious!  The one catch was that you had to eat everything your table ordered or pay the difference.  It's kind of nerve wracking when you see your bill is 4,200 yen!  Stuffed and exhausted we retired to our hotel room for the rest of the afternoon.  That night we decided to explore the base to get oriented and find our new home.  We walked a little over three miles and felt much more acquainted with the base layout when we got back.

What a week huh?? We accomplished quite a bit and feel much more comfortable with the base. Everyday holds something new!